How My Mother's Battle With Lyme Disease Inspired Me to Start 'Woman & Lyme'

I’m Romilia, and I have a great idea.

I just graduated and got my Bachelor’s degree for International Business and Languages. And you know what? I wrote my thesis about the benefits of online coaching and support for women with Lyme disease. How cool is that?

 

This whole idea started due to my personal life. My mother was diagnosed with Lyme disease. This had such an unbelievable impact on her life, but on mine as well. A lot of things changed in our family life. I have learned you can’t take simple things for granted, but also that a positive mindset is important in the battle against Lyme disease.

My mother followed an online course. It was “Your Roadmap to Success and Happiness” from Dutch mindset coach Michael Pilarczyk. He said really interesting things about mindset and focus and how to live the best life you can, no matter what.

My mother was really sick, but from her bed or relaxing chair she was listening to him. She knew this was not an online course for chronically ill people, but for entrepreneurs. And even though she knew she couldn’t work at that moment, it helped her to set goals and accomplish them by simply listening to the videos, doing the meditations and writing things down. Some days she could only concentrate for five minutes and then fell asleep. But every day the online support helped her to keep going and find inspiration. It made her small world bigger and she was part of a positive community.

All those months, I was watching my mother from the sideline while I was busy studying and doing exams. I saw my mother, even when she was in bed, opening her computer. She inspired me and made me curious. I saw her enjoying the coaching program and making progress. In the meantime I was thinking about how much I admire her and how brave she was to stay positive even when she felt so bad. This made me dedicated to helping women with Lyme disease the best I can, and that is through online coaching.

And then came the moment I had to tell the professor of my university the subject for my thesis. I told him I had this great idea to write a business plan to start an online coaching business for women with Lyme disease. You can imagine all the question I had to answer. Why women? And why online coaching if you are really sick? You are too young to start this. Etc., etc., etc. All these comments, but that did not stop me or distract me from my personal mission. I am proud of how far I have come since then, but I want to grow the Woman & Lyme movement even more.

Well, this was six months ago. Now I have my Bachelor’s degree and more than 2,000 women with Lyme disease follow me on Instagram. I get fan mail every day. Those women are so grateful for my contribution to the Lyme community and I really want to help them. I know how tough it is to fight against Lyme disease. And my mother showed me the importance of online coaching and support.

One plus one makes two.

I am currently raising money to develop the Lyme Lady Lifestyle program in order to help every beautiful woman with Lyme.

Ronald Reagan once said, “You can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”

I hope to be your “someone” and the women with Lyme disease are my “everyone.”

Together we are strong enough to help all these Lyme warriors keep fighting and lead a happy and positive life.

Thank you, Mom, for showing me how to stay positive in a difficult and unexpected situation. Thank you for your positive mindset and thank you for introducing me to the online coaching world. Now I understand that everyone deserves a coach to gain improvement and live a happy life.

Visit the Woman & Lyme website to learn more or to donate to the Lyme Lady Lifestyle Coaching Program.

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